Whalefall is a mind-blowing, take-your-breath-away adventure, but it’s also a tender and moving story of the relationship between a father and son. I developed such compassion for Jay over the course of the story, but also compassion for this whale, who becomes such a beautiful character unto itself. Whalefall is a rare thing: a page-turning, hold-your-breath, man-vs-nature thrill ride, but also a gripping exploration of the unnavigable relationship between parent and child. Whalefall is, quite simply, a beautiful novel—a must-read story of the sea, the nature of awe, and the briny relationships between fathers and sons.

Whalefall review: Stunning novel about being swallowed by a

It’s bound to make the year’s “best of” lists, which is quite the feat on its own, yet what Daniel Kraus has created here is something that can’t be quantified.So we get whiny young adult thoughts instead of grown-ass man thoughts, and that is an extra heap of something I did NOT want when I started this book. I was so impressed by Kraus’ work co-writing with del Toro that I read Kraus’ 2011 novel Rotters and very much enjoyed that as well. Jay’s life is heavily influenced by Mitt Gardiner, who stands in for more than simply a father figure; he also symbolizes unmet hopes, unmet expectations, and unsolved issues. He feels that by doing so it will help him with his guilt over not coming around during his father's cancer battle and later suicide the previous year. Thank you to Atria, MTV Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Whalefall - Horror DNA Whalefall - Horror DNA

Considering that this is a book about one guy and his dead father and that there are no other human characters in it, other than in flashbacks, I mean, to me that is mind blowing. So, all in all, this is an overwrought, overly-emotional boy-coming-to-grips-with-adulthood-and-the-loss-of-dad-and-now-he-must-find-his-own-way story disguised as a survival thriller. He’s an author taking great, big, risky swings at giant topics and doing so with the most startling genre overlays; Ring Shout is a great example.

then having his Tom Hanks moment where he loses Beaky and cries out after it, just like Hanks did with Wilson. His father taught him everything about oceanography and deep-sea diving, and Jay’s need to find something permanent of him, even if only a tooth, makes him take the dangerous gamble. Also behind The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, which was named one of Entertainment Weekly‘s Top Ten Books of the Year, Kraus had additionally won the Bram Stoker Award, the Scribe Award and two Odyssey Awards, at the same time seeing his works repeatedly named as Library Guild selections, YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults and more.

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus | Goodreads

Everything is going well during the dive until he spots a giant squid which wraps its tentacles around him as a sperm whale begins to feed. Agreements of the sort are not frequently come upon these days, amid the SAG-AFTRA and the WGA strikes. From early on, it's clear this is so much more than just a story of a boy surviving being swallowed by a whale. It is Jay’s constant growth throughout the story that makes this novel shine, allowing its beauty to emerge and leave its mark on all who encounter it.

A tribute to Kraus’s skill as a storyteller is the novel’s examination of the complexity of family dynamics, personal development, and the resiliency of the human spirit. I don't think I've been this emotionally moved by a tale of this nature since Frankenstein and that's saying something. The back and forth between Jay's present circumstance and his reflections on his past kept the story moving at a nice, steady clip. Jay needs a win (cue examples of every single thing Jay's done wrong to foreshadow how badly he needs to now do something right. There will be many an article about this book, but there’s only one way to truly understand the hype.